BTW, Bush Jr. tried this same thing and had to back down immediately because a trade war isn't limited to steel. Other countries immediately began targeting industries that held political sway and they will do so again because they aren't run by morons.

Bush's steel tariff caused an immediate loss of 200,000 jobs.

The way a lot of catastrophes happen is that X doesn't occur because there are safeguards in place, therefore people assume X isn't a worry and they remove the safeguards. Then X happens.
— Nate Silver
"Robots aren't the problem. Capitalism is." -- Last words of Stephen Hawking.
These days, "libertarian" is just a euphemism for a Nazi who's afraid to commit.
"If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention." -- Heather Heyer
"I'd rather have my child, but by golly, if I gotta give her up, we're gonna make it count." -- Her mother
"Your purpose, then, plainly stated, is that you will destroy the Government, unless you be allowed to construe and enforce the Constitution as you please, on all points in dispute between you and us. You will rule or ruin in all events." -- some RINO

Boeing is not happy. Not only having to pay more for aluminum, but very likely the prime retaliatory target.

Well, good thing they're in a Blue State.

Oh, wait -- you say they moved to Kansas?

The way a lot of catastrophes happen is that X doesn't occur because there are safeguards in place, therefore people assume X isn't a worry and they remove the safeguards. Then X happens.
— Nate Silver
"Robots aren't the problem. Capitalism is." -- Last words of Stephen Hawking.
These days, "libertarian" is just a euphemism for a Nazi who's afraid to commit.
"If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention." -- Heather Heyer
"I'd rather have my child, but by golly, if I gotta give her up, we're gonna make it count." -- Her mother
"Your purpose, then, plainly stated, is that you will destroy the Government, unless you be allowed to construe and enforce the Constitution as you please, on all points in dispute between you and us. You will rule or ruin in all events." -- some RINO

The way a lot of catastrophes happen is that X doesn't occur because there are safeguards in place, therefore people assume X isn't a worry and they remove the safeguards. Then X happens.
— Nate Silver
"Robots aren't the problem. Capitalism is." -- Last words of Stephen Hawking.
These days, "libertarian" is just a euphemism for a Nazi who's afraid to commit.
"If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention." -- Heather Heyer
"I'd rather have my child, but by golly, if I gotta give her up, we're gonna make it count." -- Her mother
"Your purpose, then, plainly stated, is that you will destroy the Government, unless you be allowed to construe and enforce the Constitution as you please, on all points in dispute between you and us. You will rule or ruin in all events." -- some RINO

Retaliation by other nations would likely hit our biggest export sectors, like agriculture. Needless to say there are a number of Republicans in Congress who are not too thrilled about that.

Quote

Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts, the Republican chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, struggled to find words to describe his emotions after being blindsided by Thursday's news that Trump would impose tariffs of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum imports that sent stocks spiraling downward amid fears of a trade war.

"These are the people who voted for the president," Roberts said. "These are his people. One county in Kansas even voted for him 90 percent and they're not going to be happy at all about this."

Roberts was joined in criticizing the proposal by U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse, a Republican from neighboring Nebraska. Together they said the effect on farm states would be costly if foreign governments retaliate with tariffs on imports of U.S. goods, such as agricultural products.

"Let's be clear: The president is proposing a massive tax increase on American families. Protectionism is weak, not strong. You'd expect a policy this bad from a leftist administration, not a supposedly Republican one," Sasse said.

The stern admonishing was reminiscent of the pushback Republicans and conservatives gave Trump on immigration following a meeting in January.

However, Trump said the tariffs would help right decades of unfair trade policies. Trump told the group of executives who gathered at the White House, including representatives from Nucor Corp., AK Steel Holding Corp. and U.S. Steel Corp., that "you will have protection for the first time in a long while."

" 'Individual conscience' means that women only get contraceptives if their employers, their physicians, their pharmacists, their husbands and/or fathers, pastors, and possibly their mayors, Governors, State Secretaries of Health, Congressmen, Senators, and President all agree that in that particular case they're justifiable." --D.C. Sessions

"That's the problem with being implacable foes - no one has any incentive to treat you as anything more than an obstacle to be overcome."

"The 'Road to Serfdom' is really all right turns." --Progressive Whisperer

""The GOP ... where every accusation is also a confession." --Progressive Whisperer

So it looks like Wilbur Ross is the one who drove this forward so recklessly.

Quote

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross steered an angry President Donald Trump into backing an aluminum and steel tariff over the objections of other senior White House officials.

Trump was furious Wednesday evening over Hope Hicks’ testimony before lawmakers, his ongoing feud with attorney general Jeff Sessions and what he perceives as unfair treatment of son-in-law Jared Kushner by White House chief of staff John Kelly, reported NBC News.

“The president became ‘unglued,’ in the words of one official familiar with the president’s state of mind,” the network reported.

That’s when Ross and Peter Navarro, the White House director for trade, pushed Trump to launch a trade war with the tariff.

Ross had already set up a White House meeting with steel and aluminum executives for 11 a.m. Thursday, but a source told NBC News the commerce secretary hadn’t told other White House officials who was coming.

That left the White House unable to conduct background checks on the executives to ensure the president should meet with them, and they were not able to be cleared for entry by the Secret Service.

Kelly, the embattled chief of staff, was unaware of their names, NBC reported.

The White House had no position papers or announcements ready for the tariff policy by late Wednesday, and the White House counsel’s office had already said they’d need at least two weeks to complete a legal review of the policy.

Another White House official responded to NBC News by insisting the communications team, still led for now by Hicks, who announced her resignation Wednesday afternoon, was “well-prepared to support the president’s announcement.”

Trump Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross on Friday went on CNBC to defend President Donald Trump’s newly announced plans to slap tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum — and he drew widespread ridicule for his boast about buying a can of Campbell’s Soup.

During a CNBC interview, Ross pulled out a can of soup that he said he had just picked up from a local 7/11. He noted that the can only cost $1.99, and he said that the additional cost per can that would result from the president’s new aluminum tariff would be minuscule for most consumers.

“If that goes up by 25 percent, that’s about six-tenths of one cent,” Ross said while holding up the can. “Who in the world is going to be too bothered by six -enths of a cent?”

The bizarre image of Ross brandishing a soup can to explain the president’s economic policies drew hackles from across the internet — check out the best reactions below.

" 'Individual conscience' means that women only get contraceptives if their employers, their physicians, their pharmacists, their husbands and/or fathers, pastors, and possibly their mayors, Governors, State Secretaries of Health, Congressmen, Senators, and President all agree that in that particular case they're justifiable." --D.C. Sessions

"That's the problem with being implacable foes - no one has any incentive to treat you as anything more than an obstacle to be overcome."

"The 'Road to Serfdom' is really all right turns." --Progressive Whisperer

""The GOP ... where every accusation is also a confession." --Progressive Whisperer

Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.

Rev Martin Luther King Jr.

Obamacare took my guns away and put me in a FEMA reeducation camp.

Anonymous

If you've got public schools paid for by taxpayers, you're in a socialist nation. If you have public roads paid for by taxpayers, socialist nation. If you've got public defense (police, fire, military, coast guard) paid for by tax dollars, socialist nation. If you're in a nation that has nationalized or localized delivery of services that are not paid for by users alone, you're in a socialist nation- the only question is how socialist. As I see it, we have the military pay to protecting the shipping lanes for our fuel needs which makes up very socialist. In a capitalist nation, the people supplying the oil would pay for their own defense force.

Maybe, but if he attains it then we'll be the shittiest hole in the world ... believe me.

" 'Individual conscience' means that women only get contraceptives if their employers, their physicians, their pharmacists, their husbands and/or fathers, pastors, and possibly their mayors, Governors, State Secretaries of Health, Congressmen, Senators, and President all agree that in that particular case they're justifiable." --D.C. Sessions

"That's the problem with being implacable foes - no one has any incentive to treat you as anything more than an obstacle to be overcome."

"The 'Road to Serfdom' is really all right turns." --Progressive Whisperer

""The GOP ... where every accusation is also a confession." --Progressive Whisperer

"Science is more than a body of knowledge; it is a way of thinking. I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time - when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers arc in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness.”

— Carl Sagan
The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
1995

“As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”

— H.L. Mencken
On Politics: A Carnival of Buncombe

“The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.”

When did Americans start calling their kids "Wilbur"? I can (just about) take "Orville", but "Wilbur" is beyond the pale. All that can be said for it is that it's not as depraved as calling your brat "John Wayne". (Gacy?!).

Reality is a hallucination caused by alcohol deprivation.

Only Satan can rebuke sin. The righteous don't know enough.

God is not dead. He was merely voted out of office.

You can do anything with anybody if you just save them the trouble of thinking.

When did Americans start calling their kids "Wilbur"? I can (just about) take "Orville", but "Wilbur" is beyond the pale. All that can be said for it is that it's not as depraved as calling your brat "John Wayne". (Gacy?!).

Just judging by the photo, about 127 years ago.

Well, fuck.

How can I be expected to distinguish BS from reality when so much of my reality is utter BS?!

"There seems to be a lot of people dying of ignorance while living in the information age." my sister-in-law.

This president isn’t the first to embrace a “trade war” to bolster his populist credentials—but in the end, it’s ordinary people who will bear its cost.

The way a lot of catastrophes happen is that X doesn't occur because there are safeguards in place, therefore people assume X isn't a worry and they remove the safeguards. Then X happens.
— Nate Silver
"Robots aren't the problem. Capitalism is." -- Last words of Stephen Hawking.
These days, "libertarian" is just a euphemism for a Nazi who's afraid to commit.
"If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention." -- Heather Heyer
"I'd rather have my child, but by golly, if I gotta give her up, we're gonna make it count." -- Her mother
"Your purpose, then, plainly stated, is that you will destroy the Government, unless you be allowed to construe and enforce the Constitution as you please, on all points in dispute between you and us. You will rule or ruin in all events." -- some RINO

Something like 40 million jobs in the US are dependent on trade, and most of the businesses are small or medium sized who have a lot of trouble absorbing even short-term interruptions in their cash flow. So layoffs are going to happen.

The way a lot of catastrophes happen is that X doesn't occur because there are safeguards in place, therefore people assume X isn't a worry and they remove the safeguards. Then X happens.
— Nate Silver
"Robots aren't the problem. Capitalism is." -- Last words of Stephen Hawking.
These days, "libertarian" is just a euphemism for a Nazi who's afraid to commit.
"If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention." -- Heather Heyer
"I'd rather have my child, but by golly, if I gotta give her up, we're gonna make it count." -- Her mother
"Your purpose, then, plainly stated, is that you will destroy the Government, unless you be allowed to construe and enforce the Constitution as you please, on all points in dispute between you and us. You will rule or ruin in all events." -- some RINO

Something like 40 million jobs in the US are dependent on trade, and most of the businesses are small or medium sized who have a lot of trouble absorbing even short-term interruptions in their cash flow. So layoffs are going to happen.

Another benefit of the tariffs.

The way a lot of catastrophes happen is that X doesn't occur because there are safeguards in place, therefore people assume X isn't a worry and they remove the safeguards. Then X happens.
— Nate Silver
"Robots aren't the problem. Capitalism is." -- Last words of Stephen Hawking.
These days, "libertarian" is just a euphemism for a Nazi who's afraid to commit.
"If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention." -- Heather Heyer
"I'd rather have my child, but by golly, if I gotta give her up, we're gonna make it count." -- Her mother
"Your purpose, then, plainly stated, is that you will destroy the Government, unless you be allowed to construe and enforce the Constitution as you please, on all points in dispute between you and us. You will rule or ruin in all events." -- some RINO

The other thing that is obvious here is that the reaction by the steel industry will not be to raise production. It will be to lower production and raise prices. Being smarter than Trump, they know these tariffs won't last, so the goal will be to maximize profits in the short term rather than to invest in additional capacity. If they do lower production as I expect them to, that will mean a net job loss in the industry.